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Friday, May 24, 2013

Sepia Saturday: Where did you get those genes?

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to
share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt challenges us to
focus on the face. As it turns out, I’ve
been studying a particular photo for quite some time hoping the names of the
subjects would be pronounced to me through some divine spirit.

So far, no spirit and no names.
However, the man’s face has become more familiar. Where have I seen this face before?

Am I imagining a strong resemblance? If not, then possibly this is Joel Vernon
Breeden (1876-1940) with his wife Zaida Maiden (1884-1962).

No doubt my dedication to family history keeps me
searching for the source of family traits manifested in the living. Where did this nose come from? Whose eyes were these? What about that chin and that forehead? So here is a little game. The rules are simple: Match the living member of my family to
someone from the past by studying their facial features.

ANSWERS: Aren't they obvious??1 and B - my nephew is my dad all day long from his facial features to his stance2 and A - my younger daughter sometimes resembles Violetta in the shape of her face and mouth3 and D - my sister is Sudie Rucker. Notice the cheek bone, jawline, and chin. 4 and C - my younger daughter is also like Velma especially her smile but even more so in spirit and style

I'm sure we have inherited the bad traits too, but it's fun and funny seeing how much my younger daughter is like my great-aunt Velma. Both were purple girls from a young age, both love(d) jewelry -- no such thing as too much, and both have/had a distinct creative bent.

What I want to know is how you get your photos side by side on the blog. Do you do this through another site? I've never been able to do it through Blogspot. I wanted to do it on today's post, but couldn't manage it. Any advice would be appreciated.Thanks.Nancy

Are you talking about the Unknown and Decatur? It works best with portrait as opposed to landscape. Then I set one for left and one for right. Even then it takes some DRAGGING and coaxing to get them to be side by side. (I assume you do know that when you insert a photo, you have a whole table of commands to change the size and position, add a caption, etc.)

We lovers of old photographs must spend great periods of our lives staring into photographs attempting to find clues from faces. I sometimes wish I had some decent facial recognition software, but perhaps that would spoil the fun. fascinating post - as usual.

Well, they are easy. I wasn't clever like Sharon. It's just amazing to me that my sister looks so much like our great-grandmother and my daughter looks so much like her great-grandaunt -- so many generations separate them.

On one wall in my living room I have wedding photos as far back as I can find of parents, grandparents and the great, greats. My husband's family resemblance is so strong throughout the years...until it comes to our own kids...they all look just like me.

Great post- you always inspire me to look more into my family ancestry.

Oh another family quiz, fun, so I will not look at others' guesses, 1-b, 2-a, 3-d, 4-c....I have some photographs that I cannot identify and staring at them the past few years has broght not a deeper hint!

A got a 100% too! No cheating either. Sepians are good at faces, but reading complete blog pages, not so much. This was a very clever quiz and converting the modern faces to sepia-tone made it work. I wonder if reversing the layout and instead colorizing the old photo faces would have made it more challenging. So many historical figures are almost defined by their Sepia or B&W photographs, and vintage family members are much the same.

As to the idea that personality is also a family gene, that goes back to the debate whether "nature or nourish" makes the child/adult. I think it is more about native intelligence and dominance of right/left brain. That would make some personality traits seem inherited because the respective individual brains have similar wiring. Of course electrical/computer phrases tell only a portion of the reasons. Sometimes it's just 'cause you slipped and fell on your head when when you were 4.

Oh Mike - you're a hoot. Look at the musical families you've written about. Did they fall on their heads at 4? I encouraged my children in music - REQUIRED them to take piano lessons until they joined the orchestra in 5th grade and stayed in orchestra through graduation. But Yo-Yo Ma, they ain't. I nurtured, I really did. So Daughter #2's Velma-like love of purple and jewelry (the more the better - no such thing as too many bracelets or rings) is as likely genetic as falling on her head at 4, I guess.

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net